The Woman Who Saved Oasis

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Aidin Vaziri | Melissa Lim remembers the first time she locked eyes with Noel Gallagher, the lead guitarist of Oasis. It was backstage at the Bottom of the Hill on Sept. 26, 1994, where the quarrelsome British rock band was making its San Francisco live debut in support of its platinum-selling first album, “Definitely Maybe.”

“He came over and sat down next to me,” she says. “I had never been backstage before, so I asked him, ‘Where’s the afterparty?’ And he goes, ‘What afterparty? Can I hang out with you tonight?’”

The encounter would play a major part in the group’s formative years, chronicled in the action-packed new documentary, “Supersonic” (from the makers of “Amy”), which hit U.S. theaters last month.

Three days later, after a disastrous concert at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles — where the band members were high on crystal meth and saddled with mismatched set lists — things came to a head. Gallagher was struck in the face by a tambourine hurled by younger brother Liam, and decided he’d had enough.

Gallagher grabbed his passport, boarded a plane to San Francisco and reportedly went into hiding at Lim’s apartment in lower Nob Hill.